HCOB issues Ship Pfandbrief in benchmark size

The transaction fully met our expectations and even exceeded them in terms of pricing: The order book for the three-year Ship Pfandbrief with a volume of EUR 500 million grew to more than EUR 2 billion within about 90 minutes and peaked at over EUR 2.7 billion. This allowed us to narrow the initial spread from mid-swaps plus 33 to plus 25 basis points. The book closed at more than 2.5 billion euros, representing approximately five times oversubscription.

Demand was broad, international, and of high quality: 55 percent of the allocation went to asset managers, 30 percent to banks, 11 percent to insurance companies and pension funds, and 4 percent to central banks and official institutions. Regionally, the Nordic countries led with 38 percent, ahead of the DACH region with 35 percent. It was particularly significant that long-term real-money investors largely maintained their orders despite the significant narrowing of the spread, and the issue was subsequently traded slightly inside the re-offer spread.

The Ship Pfandbrief is a strategic refinancing instrument for us within HCOB’s core franchise.

Our shipping business had a financing volume of 3.3 billion euros as of June 30, 2026, and the portfolio was characterized—as in previous years—by an NPL ratio of 0.0 percent and an average LTV of 42 percent.

Following our last publicly offered Ship Pfandbrief in January 2024 with a volume of 500 million euros—which has been repaid in the meantime—the new offering once again establishes an outstanding fixed interest bearing benchmark in the Ship Pfandbrief segment. The new offering benefited from an attractive market window, strong investor interest, and a significantly improved relative value since 2024.

Our refinancing strategy is based on a balanced structure comprising deposits, Pfandbriefe , senior preferred, senior non-preferred, and subordinated capital.

In the covered segment, Mortgage and Ship Pfandbriefe remain strategic refinancing instruments for our real estate and shipping franchises. In addition, the unsecured capital market remains part of our funding mix, as demonstrated by the five-year senior preferred benchmark issue of 500 million euros that we issued in January 2026. Going forward, we will continue to issue unsecured and Pfandbrief benchmark bonds in the capital market and will align our issuance decisions flexibly and in line with market conditions based on our funding requirements, maturity profile, the development of our franchise assets, and attractive market windows.